Long nights at the bar
by Winkaku
Summary: very long nights; trapped with a crazed angry dark boy.


(A/N: I could never spell that KG woman's name right, thus I avoid using it at all costs. So I guess you'll just have to deal…

Inspired by Red vs Blue episode 34

This was also inspired by one of my personal favorite stories called "studying the unloved" I borrowed a saying from it; it made so much sense!)

Cold and dark as usual and with a touch of rain, small hail stones falling against the windows; ah yes Haven was truly a place of sorrows.

Long dark alleyways and rusted metal twisted about unceremoniously only served to enhance the feeling of decadence.

"So there I was, surrounded by the UGLIEST metal heads you'd ever SEE!"

They were at The Naughty Ottsel, Daxter stood enjoying himself while entertaining his victims with a thrilling story, he may not have had much for truth or accuracy but he did, if nothing else, have a way with words.

All the while he made imaginative gestures with his hands, of teeth and claws, throwing himself and his audience into the story.

His onlookers consisted of an enraptured Tess sitting curtly upon a stool, Torn and Ashelein who were sitting in a booth and a tired Jak, resting in a separate booth all his own, a small dim light hanging overhead.

The only people in the bar that night.

Jak looked a wreck, hair tangled and tear lines of old blood leaking down his misshapen and roughly toned shoulder. His hands lying still around his tiny glass, dwarfed by large calloused appendage, the other sat near his shoulder gingerly, dark rimmed eyes slit closed in exhaustion.

Daxter had taken notice of his unusually dead stature some time ago, sparing concerned glances every now and then, only to be ushered forward into his story by an over eager Tess.

He sat hunched over his small glass of something or other, shifting unsettlingly and tipping tiredly and almost dangerously from side to side as if he would fall over with the slightest gust of "wind".

"Hey toots…!" with a usual catcall he grabbed at Asheleins attention. "He got shot near the shoulder a while back… it should've healed up with the lights show but it doesn't look like it and he won't let me anywhere near it…"

Daxter hopped off the bar counter and skittered over to Ashelein, a look of guilt on his face as he spoke in a near whisper.

" I tried my best and now he wont talk to me, I thought he just needed some time out so…"

True Daxter had put a good effort into finding out what was wrong, tentatively shoving Jaks hands aside and scraping at his reluctant patient with a med kit and all the subtly of a tactical nuke. The wound had healed over somewhat but it was still a furious red and leaked a little blood or something.

Dax had patched Jak up many times during the war so this was second nature to him, despite his natural aversion from gore, blood or any other vital lubricants that stained undesirable places or should be on the inside rather than the out.

But Jak would have none of Daxters excruciating poking or prodding this time as his attitude flared up from pain and annoyance.

He couldn't focus on the annoying bouncing orange fur ball bobbing in and out of his vision and showed his already clear pained agitation by roughly hitting at Daxter and eventually pushing him off the table with such an urgency that Daxters little frame had been flown to the other side of the room A.K.A the wall.

Thus the not talking to part.

Ashelein rose from her seat quickly and began to walk to the bar counter and search the dust laden shelves for a med kit. "You should have told me earlier."

At that Daxters face flopped even lower with the guilt and he approached his sickly friend, rough clicks of his tiny claws blaring in the musty quiet room.

"Be careful now, he doesn't look to good" Torn knew he was stating the obvious as he got up to stand next to Daxter, but to say something is often better than nothing.

That was what made Daxter who he was, no matter how much you wanted to strangle him for yapping and constantly complaining, he always broke the silence.

Silence that would eat you alive.

In a way his insanity and eccentricities were what kept them sane, always reminding them that the thin thread of a line they had was still there and they still had it for themselves, no matter how much some of them would hate to admit it, Daxter was an angel of sanity, a reminder of their untouchable boundaries and personal safeties.

No wonder Jak always kept him around.

As soon as he took one step forward jaks once solid and still slouched form began to tremor horribly, shuddering as if in seizure.

Ashelein immediately ran up to him dropping the med pack so that it sat open on the booths table. She took a small light and began to flash it in his eyes to check his senses, holding down his now violently shuddering form.

"The newer bullets are laced with a toxin, there should be a standard antidote in the med kit."

To say that Daxter was terrified by the sudden change would be putting it mildly.

"Why the HELL didn't you tell me?"

Torn had to hold and gag up Daxter in his arms, positioned much like a child with a teddy bear; a very pissed, very scared and very orange teddy bear.

"No sudden shit!"

Barely a whisper, but it was obvious Torn found something terribly wrong through his narrowed eyes, manifesting slowly in Jaks paling, sweating flesh.

The biting quiet tore at Daxter and the sounds of the pounding hail and wind were lost amongst the morbidly expectant crowd.

Daxter bit viciously into Torn's hand but received no reaction other than a snarl and a bead of blood slowly rising from the wound; Tess continually switched from looking at the trembling Jak and her furious Daxter.

"SHIT!" It was a loud succinct phrase and it told them everything they needed to know.

Ashelein saw the black creeping into his eyes through the light like heaving oil, slow but steady and gaining in speed swallowing the illumination of her flashlight. She reached into the kit, pulling out a small bottle of clear liquid and a syringe filling it to its maximum quickly but was shot back by a spasmodic kick from Jak and a stray stream of eco.

Dark eco.

The tremors became convulsions and eco crackled madly as Jak rolled and fell from the booths bench chair and into a huddling mass, shaking on the floor and clutching his screaming head with his good hand and his burning shoulder with the other as the shot glass flew from the table and shattered.

Desperately clutching at his insides and reeling in pain, she could see that he did in no way want to change near them.

They had all heard stories, oh hell, there were stories but only Daxter had ever seen it.

Now they all saw that hideous pain that tore into Jak throughout his every transformation. One could hear the bones fracturing and reforming, the muscle stretching, tearing and growing with a sound akin to ripping fabric as his form increased in size and enhanced in muscle and power, body and energy.

And now, come to think of it, they would be much happier with only stories.

It was disturbing to watch and above all to hear, to simply be within auditory distance of the sub vocal screams ripping at his throat, the disgusting sound of such violently shifting flesh and bone, it was unbearable; the air and scent exuded from his body wreaked of sweat and blood and eco that even stained the now palatable flavor of the wind with a disgusting acrid metallic bloody ooze.

Tess let out a small squeak and grabbed hold of Daxter from Torn who stood tensed over his gun, back rigid, praying to the precursors that he wouldn't have to kill his best man.

Not a lot scared him in his lifetime but this scared the life from him.

Daxter struggled in Tess's tight binding arms, guilt ridden and concerned, frozen fear coiled to a point that would make his head explode.

How could he let this happen, he should have been paying attention or something, anything!

Jak roes to his feet shaking, energy running wild and burning the floor causing them to back further away, eco striking mindlessly out at anything it could. Two large horns began to form through his cracking skull, bones twisting and shifting to his new form. Great black talons shot from his hands like unsheathed daggers and his muscles swelled and tensed further as fangs grew into place in his gaping maw, spit slathering limply out in tawny threads with the roars of pain he howled. Without warning, a small black object shot out of his lame shoulder and imbedded its bloodied self in the wall, propelled by the force of his transformation and the angry sparks of eco.

It was more than apparent that one could not even begin to imagine the complexities of this transformation.

All they could do was watch silently and listen to his cracking bones and cries of pain as he held at his face, eyes turning blacker than night.

"So this is how it happens…"

A sick morbid awe surrounded her as, eyes widening in fear; Ashelien went straight for her communicator.

"Sig! Get as many med kits as you can and bring a field medic to The Naughty Ottsel NOW!"

It was a strong shriek of an order that no one in their right mind would question let alone disobey and with that the line went dead, save for the usual static.

Jak steadily arched his back upward dangerously, displaying his sharp teeth and talons and the heavy musculature of his body, chest and back exposed.

Bulging muscle set firmly to the exposed ridges of his spine through his torn cotton like shirt as eco shot from him in every direction, damaged arm hanging listlessly to his side and sparking; teeth and sharp scissor like fangs were exposed by curled back lips, face contorted into a very dangerous snarl, low volatile growls and hisses tearing through his wet throat.

Torn had immediately decided that the morbid stories of pain, violence, torture and death did no justice to this creature; demonic as it was, one would see words to describe it as rather hard to find.

His dark form had no mind for allies, anything was fair game and blood, no matter whom it belonged to, always tasted good, he did not see friends in his eco-clouded mind.

He saw prey, toys to have his way with and as of now a threat.

His body and mind, in this form knew only hate, pain, anger, power, vengeance and the means to attain or inflict it.

His extremely pissed off expression only made this more apparent, slightly hunched and fangs bared under curled lips, eco crackling like mad, possessed electricity.

What ever was left of Jak in that being cared deeply for their well being and outright refused any attacks on his part.

It was entirely showmanship now; the inner conflict made every breath a strain, putting his unwillingly shifting body into limbo, refusing to move an inch and restrained to twitching and posturing.

Mindless as that creature might seem at times, it was actually rather intelligent and knew how to play out it's strategies properly, he knew his situation was dangerous and oh how he hated it.

"He's challenging us…"

Thankfully Torn knew much from his experiences with metal heads, body language became second nature to a hunter such as himself though he had never bothered to converse with them.

Shoot first, ask questions never.

At Torn's command everyone slowly sank to the floor, Tess trembling madly under his horrid gaze and awesome display, hugging Daxter tightly to her chest.

Daxter did not dare say a word, he knew what Jak was like when he turned and thus knew some safety protocols.

Rule one: silence is golden.

Rule two: don't do ANYTHING to piss him off any more.

Rule three: Bend down and around and kiss your ass good bye if you get the time to do it!

Rule number two was broken however.

Ashelein made a mad jump forward and in one swift motion she curled her arms around him in a dammed effort to knock him down.

Understandably, the big guy wasn't used to being stood up to and was indeed surprised by the sudden suicidal "strategy" if one could call it that.

In a dulled reflex Jak slammed her into the side of the opposite wall with a thick crack, a small cry of pain passing her curled lips.

The crash nearly broke the wall and if not for Jak's state of limbo, she would have been killed and there would be no wall to speak of.

Hell they would have all been killed by his first step and they knew it.

Torn prepared to fire, squeezing the trigger apprehensively with a sweaty hand… gods don't make him do this…

"DON'T SHOOT!"

Ashelein brought any wandering attention back to herself as she ordered Torn not to fire in a wavering breath replaced by steady heaves, blood dripping down her brow.

Dark Jak slowly reached a clawed hand upward in a hazy languid motion toward his neck.

(A/N: I actually have a bit of experience with this kind of thing. I was sick with something real bad in the ER and they gave me fenigen to stop the… well… blaaaaaagh. I had to get up once and I was sooooo loopy I couldn't keep my feet under me. Oh God! Someone stop the world I wanna get off!

I always saw DJ as Jak, the same being but so different in nature and appearance it only just seems like there are two separate entities.

DJ is dark eco, power and corruption, he is death, he is pain, he is hate and he is pissed! )

There was small needle stuck into the flesh near the nape of his neck and he yanked it out in a swift motion.

All the liquid was gone.

It was clear as he inspected it, low growls and the occasional hiss, that needles were a new concept to him in that form, it had barely pierced his flesh, the long tip slid out easy and left a small trickle of blood in it's wake as he held it in his strong hands between two long black onyx talons, examining it with learning curiosity.

The concept was only foreign to him because no guards had ever thought to use a tranquilizer gun and throughout the hazy memories of his prison life, needles had only given instantaneous pain; within the confines of that hellish place, they would always resort to brute force when putting him out; they had more fun that way.

Both forms had a natural aversion to the petty vices that the cities people drowned themselves with and the possibilities of anyone shooting at him with something other than a bullet were slim at best and all poisons were easily flushed out by the dark eco within him.

In truth the very existence of such a drug being used beyond pain relief purposes was unknown.

He threw down the syringe with a small snarled huff, breaking the outer casing in a sharp shattering ring and once more rounded on Ashelein.

"Don't shoot…"

Jak approach her, steady restrained footsteps pounding against the floor, metal tipped boots barely scrapping the wooden planks and leaving a distinct ticking sound, as if it were ticking off her last seconds of breath.

Eco crackled and his low-slung body flexed perplexedly in front of her, studying her.

She was rigid, she didn't move or scream or even close her eyes as he approached; what kind of brazenly insane creature was this?

What was it waiting for?

His predatory gait began to sway only 3 feet before her stiff form.

What had she done?

Apparently the mega dose of anesthetic was taking its toll, Dark Jak had never encountered such a weapon before and tried desperately to steady himself and shake off this foreign feeling of unwarranted exhaustion.

His vision began bobbing and blurring as colors and objects fused together.

He couldn't feel his legs; sensations reduced to a meager twinge every now and then, heartbeat thumping in his ears and blood and eco pounding in his head; even the eco inside him could do nothing to stop it.

Saliva began to seep from his panting and slacking jaws, dripping to the floor in thin slivers and burning it like acid.

He wanted for it to end, for the world to stop spinning, twirling around and unsettling his stomach to no end, almost reduced to heaving, curling up on the floor; and he fought it with all he had.

He was always so strong, what in the hell was wrong!

He had to FIGHT! Kill the bastards!

The once coordinated limbs now flung about with no mind to them. His body was tipping dangerously and in a hazed mistake he tripped over his own two feet and fell unceremoniously to the floor in a heap with a loud thud and a strangled roar, spit pooling on the floor in his labored breathing, injured arm sitting at a now odd angle.

"T-thank the precursors…"

Relief, pure and utter relief saturated that single sentence.

The once spell bound hostages could now move, Daxter ran up to Jaks limp form, finally free from Tess's vice grip having wormed his way out of her shocked arms.

"NO! What'd you DO to 'im!"

Daxter was practically screaming and looked about ready to tear up as he wailed, ears resting on the back of his tiny orange head in an animal display of emotion and shook his friends limp body with no reaction.

He lifted his friend's hand only to see it fall limply to the floor as he frantically pushed at Jak's white shoulders and jumping back as the demon swiveled its mighty head, growling tiredly, snarling, teeth bared and tiredly attempting to get within biting distance of the hopping orange blob.

"jaaaaaak…"

"It's alright he'll just be asleep fo-"

"What in the HELL is going on here!"

Sig stood exasperated in the doorway with three med kits held up under his left arm and a shaking scientist on the left as he took in the wreckage, thumping the butt of his peacemaker on the old bar floor for emphasis, an odd look to his face due to the one mechanical eye disfiguring his expression with a practiced grimace.

The scientist was a pale (and at the moment even paler) man, slender and shaky, his hair was a graying and greasy black, pushed back at the side and the oil stained white lab coat he wore was definitely a few sizes too large.

With his large, lopsided coke bottle glasses he was almost painfully similar to Vin, especially in attitude.

It didn't take the poor man long enough to notice the drooling white creature lying face first on the burnt up and scratched floor.

The room was a wreck and the booth Jak had sat in had collapsed in the brief yet minor struggle, lights burnt out and pieces of twisted glass and metal littered the floor.

To avoid the risk of waking Jak, Sig immediately slammed his hand over the disgruntled scientist's mouth, dropping the med kits and refusing to let go until he calmed and stopped screaming (albeit muffled) shoving him up against a nearby wall.

At the noise a now semi unconscious Dark Jak began to twitch and tense, trying for all his dormant might to heave himself off the floor.

He made it well apparent with his flaring eco charges that while he was down he was definitely not out.

A quick protest and a nasty look from Sig was all it took to have Torn prepping some anesthetic from one of the new med kits and shoving another needle into his neck as he finally fell "peaceful".

"HOLYP-P-PRECURSORSWHAAAAAAATT-T-T-THE-"

"Shut it!"

A small sigh escaped an increasingly worried Daxters lips as Ashelein ordered the scientist to hook Jak up to an IV and a feed of everybody's new favorite anesthetic, hauling him atop a booth table with the help of Sig.

Even with a very reluctant little scientist, things got done efficiently and quickly.

"-So that's what the hell happened here…"

A pensive look enveloped Torn.

Sig had repositioned himself into the booth next to them, Daxter was forced to find more med kits, they desperately needed the anesthetic it carried and as nervous as he was, leaving him with Jak was not a good idea, it took a lot of convincing and an ass load of death threats, until Tess managed to sweet talk him into it.

The aging scientist looked about ready to faint, his only condolence was in the fact that Jak was REALLY out of it.

He had heard many stories of the dark one, the white devil, the large freaky pale envoy of hell and the monstrosities it was capable of.

He had a while back, during the underground insurrection, heard that the creature had once killed an entire squadron of over a hundred KG's with nothing more than its claws. If that wasn't bad enough, the story also told about how it had gotten bored and decided to kill the rest more slowly and… creatively.

Damn them and their stories, they did no justice to it.

He sat barricading his fidgeting, twitching self in with the adjacent booth seat.

Torn and Ashelein continued to speak with one another.

It was odd and almost ironic seeing Dark Jak so peaceful, breath rising in a steady rasp within his calmed chest.

It was almost morbidly comedic; a passed out Dark Jak, drooling and wheezing away atop a bar table wasn't what one would expect to see at any time of day.

Daxter curled up next to him playing look out, but all of them were on edge, nervous and whippy to the slightest sound.

Sig looked over to Torn and back at the new guy and Ashelein, sensing their questions, he began to provide answers.

"I found jitters here down by what's left of the strip mine getting friendly with some metalheads, beyond that I have no clue." To emphasize his point, Sig swept his hand across the airspace in front of him in a wide and tense gesture of annoyance.

"Well than w-whatdo you n-need me for!" Now both The old man and Ashelein glared at each other for his outburst, a somewhat funny sight to see the trembling wide eyed scientist try to glare at anyone let alone her, but given the situation she couldn't blame him, no one wants to be near Dark Jak, not in a million years.

"You're a scientist and your unregistered, I'm not letting you out of my sight now but most importantly, you're a scientist.

"H-h-hell no! I don't know HOW many times I-I-I've said it! I-I'm a scientist, I deal w-with ECO!"

"GOOD! We have no idea what the eco has really done to Jak, now is as good a time as any to get some answers and treat his injuries. You know how eco reacts and how to work with it you're our best hope here and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. DO NOT do anything you will regret."

The man looked as if his seemingly minute pride had been both bolstered and popped at the same time as his fears tripled but he knew he wouldn't get out of this with sterile hands.

"The name's Lecker…"

So with a flick of his dainty wrist and a "why me?" look he got out some gloves from a kit and did his best not to pass out, twitching and rasping all the way as he walked towards the "sleeping" dark creature on the table, an awkwardly prideful swing to his gait.

"Don't worry, I just need you to guide me." Her tone was impossibly warm as she spoke to him; it was a drastic switch in tone that she had used many times before and no matter how many times she had done so it still caught people by surprise.

In a shocked response to the quiet patient tone he began to unravel a little, if not by far but it was still so much better than when he had been working under her father.

Daxter moved from his spot on the table up to the headrest of the seat and Sig sat quietly next to Torn who held an oxygen mask to Jaks face, a mild look of concern and massive apprehension on his face lost among his features as he stared down at the mans exceedingly large canines and tried not to notice just how big and pointy they were and just how close they were to his hand and arm…and jugular vein perhaps.

The mask fogged up with his moist steady breaths and slowly and carefully Ashelein cut through his cobalt blue shirt and lifted it up.

It was not a very ugly sight but it still threatened to send Lecker heaving as he stood back practically convulsing, if one didn't know the man even for a second they would think he was having a seizure.

The wound was stained, sore and red; inflamed in the center and from the bulge it was clear something was broken, the red in violent contrast with his pale white skin, slowly clotting and healing over before their very eyes and there was a strange and large column of vein like white rising up his belly and spreading out in an almost spider web like fashion, barely visible but a blaring white and silver.

He would have bled to death had he fallen asleep with the wound earlier in his normal form, thus the transformations purpose became clear as the wound crackled with electricity. The transformation itself had caused the break, unable to reform around the bullet lodged into his scapula it had been thrown out by the sheer force of the change but Jak could not get it all out through the power of his transformation alone.

Upon retrospect, it was odd that while the light eco was capable of healing the injury to the bone it was unable to eject the bullet properly, yet the dark eco was; perhaps it was simply the sheer forceful nature of the dark eco itself.

It didn't take long for her to begin working and soon she had reached her first problem, the blood was eating through her gloves leaving an acrid scent of acid burnt rubber.

She looked to Lecker for an answer. "The blood/eco ratio must be very high, switch gloves every five minutes or so…"

It didn't take Lecker's knowledge to know how incredulous that was.

Even what seemed like a small amount of eco could cause great harm, a 1.2% ratio was the death point for normal humans, but for this to happen his blood would have to have at least a 10% ratio, an astounding development nonetheless.

If she were to touch his blood there was no telling what kind of damage it would cause.

"T-that isn't p-possible though… the whole internal system and capacity would have to have been rearranged… mutated…"

She continued her work, carefully avoiding as many of the wiry, twisting veins and arteries as she could, the blood was precious to Jaks health but not for hers by far, she didn't have a death wish.

Eventually she came upon the slightly deformed and fractured shoulder blade. A piece of the bullet had broken off and lodged itself in his shoulder socket, eco writhed around the intrusive object, swirling and sparking before settling down to flutter almost prettily back into his bloodied muscle tissue.

Lecker simply stared at the phenomenon in front of him, eyes wide and mumbling quietly to himself.

"That explains why it didn't heal up" Ashelien said.

"If it had his arm would have been permanently deformed and unusable…"

She began the slow and methodical work of removing the bone and bullet chips and after a tense fifteen minutes and four pairs of gloves later, none were left.

They both pondered the self-awareness of the eco inside Jak, did it somehow "know" the consequences of healing, or was it self-controlled, if so than why had he not healed before?

The eco had stopped sparking as if to allow them into closer proximity but seemed to bubble under the surface like a coiled serpent ready to strike, hissing and crackling.

The large eco bolts that flashed from his body sporadically may not have looked as deadly as the teeth and claws Jak sported but a single touch would burn like red-hot iron with a 1.1% or higher (which was more often the case) dose of concentrated eco.

As soon as the final piece was removed Jaks body began to twitch again, groaning inhumanly. They upped the dosage of anesthetic and held the mask tighter to his face but jumped back haphazardly as a spray of lightning eco fluttered from the wound healing it over instantaneously as it sank back into his body and nearly giving the trampled Lecker a heart attack.

Jak fell silent again and the only thing that could be heard was the now soft rain and Lecker's loud wheezes.

"That's imp-possible!"

Still so quiet.

"The eco would have to be reactive with the sub-mental and bodily responses! There would have to be minimum of a 45% eco concentration ratio in order for this type of pseudo sentiency to occur, eco saturation in a human is instantaneous death! This is a complete medical, bio-eco BREAKTHROUGH in human performance and enhancement! Eco pseudo sentiency is all but unrecorded in a living organism, the neurological, physiological and bio-chemical systems would require unprecedented alterations down to the very genetic core, T-t-t-this is a metaphysical imposs-"

"LECKER!"

He froze on the spot amidst his scientific tantrum; form shaking a bit at the now copious amount of attention he was getting. They could tell that if they'd let him go on any further he would most likely have ran himself senseless and nobody was in the mood for it.

"Thanks for the update twitchy." Daxter quipped from a now aggravated Ashelein's left shoulder.

Eventually his rampant stammering was reduced to mumbling incoherently as he continued on his tangent, fears forgotten in the face of such blatant defiance of physical law.

Everyone else seemed to be more focused on how to get jak back to normal, they wanted him to wake up but not as he was now, it would be a massacre.

Sig knew this well.

You never cornered a confused or injured animal and knowing jak, he would probably try to kill the first thing he saw.

Sig had once worked alongside the monstrous creature that Jak became from time to time, it was never pretty; tuck and roll and stay out of the way, it's the only sure fire way to survive any possible mishaps.

Dark Jak is a tornado of sharp claws and teeth and deadly eco when he fights and the aftereffects are pure gore.

At one time Sig had requested aid within Haven Forest in order to take out the beginnings of a soon to be wave of combat metal heads.

They had been overwhelmed at first and were pushed back to the rocks for cover when Jak had ditched Sig and ran straight into the flurry of claws.

For a moment Sig had thought him insane; but in the bare seconds of the first hint of eco, it became a slaughter.

Sig himself had traveled far distances in his long life as a wastelander, hunter and a spy for Spargus, he had seen the worst of any metalhead and massacre and had more than his fair share of blood on his hands.

He had never before seen anything so terrible as the dark creature that tore open those thousands of bodies, scorched and gouged apart the earth, toppled trees and buildings and generally blew shit up like that; ever.

It was a blood bath, there were bodies ripped open and strewn about all over the place, the smell of gore and sweat and eco all made him want to throw up and not even the worst metalhead nest raid put up anywhere near the number of corpses and pure shit.

Not even a bare three minutes later Jak came waltzing out of the fray of dust, dirt, blood and bodies, covered head to toe in dead everything and he didn't have a scratch on him; the remnants of that area of the forest are still marred with ash and craters to this day and Sig could swear to the high heavens that the trees in that area had turned red from all the blood they drank.

Never in his life had Sig thought that he would see the day a metalhead would show such blatant fear as they did that day; but there wasn't much left of them to be afraid in the end and frankly, Sig couldn't blame them.

"…No signs of reasoning, self-destructive and environmentally destructive.

Advanced intelligence?"

He stared at the scientist for a bit.

"Overactive bodily systems… overly aggressive…chemically unstable and neurotic…

…Irritability, reactivity, anger and… self-preservation.

Eco in the blood is… gathered, condensed… and creates massive/exponential power upon release…?"

Lecker ran through his many pockets, tossing out various tools in search of a note pad while watching small slivers of eco rise and fall from Jak's pale flesh.

As Lecker continued his near silent rambling, Ashelien, with the help of Sig, lifted Jak's front forward gently and cautiously as she set to the task of bandaging the wound, weather he needed it or not.

As she worked she could feel every rise and fall of his chest beneath her fingers and the grainy rasp of his breathing.

As they finished their task Ashelien let her hand slide over his toned and rock hard stomach to settle at the base of his sternum as she and Sig lowered him back to the table, Torn holding onto the oxygen mask.

She could feel the powerful muscles of his abdomen flex as they laid him down back onto the bar table, chest and shoulder bandaged neatly.

As he now lay still, Sig left them to their own ideas and plopped himself down in a booth chair as far from Jak as possible, gripping his trusty peacemaker and trying fruitlessly to settle down.

Ashelien let her hand trail upwards across the curious white striations on his stomach, touch feather light as Jak seemed to sigh into her touch, taking a deep breath and startling the hell out of her as his chest rose high to meet her wandering hands, breath let out in a low rumbling growl.

"An eco axis AMAZING!"

Lecker jumped forward staring at the strange veins of color and nearly getting a face full of Asheliens pistol for having startled her.

"Run your hand along it, it won't hurt you it's too low a concentration." He wasn't asking, he was giving her an order from the sound of his incessant prodding.

He continued to take notes as Ashelien, mind weary, figured to hell with arguing and complied but she'd have to have a talk with him later; in a dark alley and alone if he kept throwing out demands at her like that.

She ran her fingers smoothly along the whiter areas of his flesh as an electrical residue seemed to accumulate on her fingertips, a ghost of a touch of eco so light it buzzed and tingled, like placing your hand on a quickly vibrating surface or a low powered electrical socket.

It seemed to gather and spark off her nails in barley visible bolts and from the look of it Jak seemed to be truly enjoying it, a watered down façade of a non sadistic turn of the lips so subtle it only served to just barely soften the ever present grimace.

Sig quirked a large brow at them as Torn sat with a hand over his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with an exasperated sigh and Daxter swished his tail back and forth idly, peering down from Asheliens shoulder.

"Eco axis?"

"The point at which eco is most concentrated along the body, it's extremely sensitive and this one is the biggest I've ever seen, even the metal heads I've studied were no where near this size…"

"You study metalheads!" Sig promptly jumped up out of his seat and slammed the butt of his Peacemaker into the wooden and scorched floor of the bar.

"Keep it DOWN!  
Sig turned gruffly to face an agitated ottsel and a shock weary Tess.

"You wanna wake big gruesome there?"

No way in hell.

"I was issued by baron Praxis to study and document the effects of dark eco and the many different species of metalheads in the wild, that was nearly a year and a half ago. After the first war ended I was kinda in limbo and so I decided to wait it out; my passport was expired anyway and I don't wanna have to fight, I'm no soldier!"

Torn stilled his stretching and settled his aching muscles deciding to occupy his mind with questions and information. How could such a coward scientist study metalheads?

Lecker busied himself with taking page after page of notes and trying to take off Jaks boot and falling on his ass as a result. He wanted to study every inch of this fascinating creature and in pursuit of such his acts were becoming more and more brazen, poking and prodding at jak in a practiced and seemingly professional medical manner.

"Of coarse most of my specimens were dead BUT I have worked with live subjects before but this specimen is truly-"

"Jak's NOT some kinda specimen so cram it ZIPPY!" Daxter was quick to berate him for this personal offense, throwing a rude gesture in Leckers direction. At times like this he often found his hair standing on end; Jak was not a science experiment he was a friend and a damn good 'un.

As if aware of being the subject of a conversation Jak stretched under Asheliens stock still hand, claws flexing, a low growl sliding past his pale red lips, once again cut into the all to common grimace as he shifted, his now bare foot sliding across the table cutting claw marks into its metallic surface with a terrifying ease and a gut twisting screech of nails gouging out metal.

"…I'm not paying for all this." Said Daxter, staring at all of the deep claw marks and scorch patterns with an accumulating distain.

Ashelien brought her hand to the top of the silver spider web-like markings that crept over his front and set the edge of one of her now sparking red nails on it and felt the seemingly resonant thrum of eco within him.

It soon became apparent that it was in fact not simply the eco that made the trilling hum but it was also a low steady sub audible growl, vibrating within the back of his throat and deep within his chest.

It almost seemed that, as if in response to her touch, he was further exposing the thin tenuous lines more thoroughly to her touch, like a crocodog that would rub along it's masters petting hand.

"Oh my…well this is somewhat unexpected" Said Lecker as he shifted to get a better look at the rise and fall of his chest and the point where Asheliens finger tip sat lightly upon his chest, eco thrumming in a low and somewhat calming manner.

"What is it?"

"Stimulation properly applied to the sensitive eco axis can be interpreted many ways… you seem to have quite a touch Miss…"

Somewhere in her mind the nuances of what Lecker was saying clicked into place and she promptly removed her hand, an exasperated blush upon her cheeks as the collected electricity flew off aimlessly and Sig barked out a short baritone laugh, Tess went bright red after a while and Torn either failed or refused to find anything humorous in it as Daxter buried his head in his paws.

Clearing his throat Torn sat forward in his seat. "So how do we get him back to normal?"

"I guess we wait 'till the eco runs out." Daxter said, stifling a chuckle and moving up closer with Tess.

And as if on a cue Jaks body shuddered with eco and his form began to shift back to the norm, fangs regressing to no longer peep out from behind his lips, titanic horns subsiding and his skin slowly took back the color that was stolen from it. The impressive claws receded back from talons to chipped human nails, bones creaked and muscle relaxed, body no worse for wear considering the circumstances but perhaps a might bit shorter than his dark form.

"Incredible…" sighed Lecker as he continued to frantically right notes yet seemingly disappointed that he would no longer be able to study the dark form of his most fascinating subject.

"I'll… I'll have a talk with my men about friendly fire and see if I can fit Lecker into a few of our programs, we need brave scientists but you obviously need training. You'll be filled in about the happenings as of late and Torn, I'll need you to run a background check."

Torn snorted and leaned back, hand once again pinching the bridge of his nose; how he despised paper work.

Sig took one giant step forward as Tess disconnected Jak from the anesthetic line to allow him to sleep off the effects.

"Okay not so cherries, 's been one hellova night and I aint leaving without a drink dammit."

Daxter jumped onto an unbroken and unscorched section of the bars counter and took in a loud breath and giving an exaggerated sigh. Yes it had been one hell of a night indeed.

"Drinks on the house peeps!"


End file.
